Among the people on both sides of the street, in addition to the sympathetic gazes, those who had no surplus grain in their hands, or those who had surplus grain that had been sold to the officers and soldiers, looked at this scene with a look of schadenfreude. And those who have surplus food in their hands and plan to sell it privately when it gets dark are all as pale as dirt.

Seeing that both sides of the street were crowded, the officers and soldiers who led the team stopped the gong in their hands and said in a loud voice: "Fellow villagers, the officers and soldiers went in to suppress the rebels to ensure the safety of one side and for the sake of our people in the city. At present, the army is short of food, and some people in the city who have surplus food do not work together to help each other, but instead take the opportunity to hoard and raise the price of grain, and disturb the people's hearts. ”

The leader of this officer and soldier knows how to agitate very well, and it seems that he is in charge of propaganda in the army. The eloquence is not bad, and the voice is also very loud. After a pause, he looked around, and then continued: "Therefore, the general ordered the collection of grain, and the surplus grain in the whole city should be collected and redistributed, so as to ensure the food and grass of the army, and also to ensure that everyone in the city has food to eat, so that they will not starve to death." Ladies and gentlemen, isn't this a good thing for the people of the city? But there is a villain like Zhang Blacksmith who asks for money and does not want his life, defying the law, disobeying the general's orders, and destroying and suppressing bandits, what is the difference between this behavior and a traitor? This kind of behavior is collaborating with the enemy, and such people are the common enemies of our people in the whole city! It is the enemy of our Datang, and everyone will be punished! ”

Some of the onlookers hid behind the crowd and coaxed: "Well said! "Beheaded!" "Chop into pâté!" "Wife and daughter fill the army"! …… The little leader of the officers and soldiers was very happy and applauded: "Listen, this is the voice of the people!" According to the general's order, in accordance with the wishes of the people, we must correct these people who disobey the general's military order on the spot! Put someone’s head on a spike! ”

As soon as they heard this, those who did good deeds were even more proud, and shouted loudly, and the others, some of whom gloated, had nothing to do with themselves, so they wanted to see the excitement and followed suit. For a while, there was a lot of noise on the street, all of which were shouting to kill the head.

Seeing that the incitement had been achieved, the leader nodded in satisfaction and shouted, "Execution!" ”

Wow! The street was filled with applause, mixed with coaxing and even scolding.

In the heavy snow, Blacksmith Zhang struggled to turn around and shouted, "Dad! Mother! Take care! Kids have to go first......! Blacksmith Zhang's wife and children cried and grabbed the ground, kowtowing and splashing blood, but no one paid attention.

A soldier brought a long bench and placed it in front of Blacksmith Zhang, and the two soldiers beside Blacksmith grabbed Blacksmith Zhang's shoulders, pressed him to the bench, and ripped off his clothes to expose his neck. A burly soldier, standing aside with a ghost-headed knife in his hand, slashed the ghost-headed knife on the back of his neck, raised it high, shouted loudly, and slashed it down. While listening to the click, Dou Da's head rolled down on the spot, and a cavity of hot blood spurted out, sprinkled on the snow, scarlet.

The two soldiers threw the blacksmith's headless body backwards, fell to the ground on his back, and his legs twitched unconsciously a few times before he stopped.

Blacksmith Zhang's wife had passed out, his father knelt on the ground and wept, and his wife and children knelt and crawled over, holding Blacksmith Zhang's headless body and weeping.

In the pharmacy, Liang was like a puddle of mud, if it weren't for Zhu Gui holding her arm all the time, she would have collapsed on the ground. Zuo Gui himself was also shaking like chaff all over his body.

Bai Zhihan held Zuo Shaoyang with one hand, his expression did not change, Zuo Shaoyang looked at his mother like this, and sighed in his heart, the more than 100 buckets of grain underground, I am afraid that it will not be able to be saved!

Sure enough, Zuo Gui ordered the door to be closed, helped Liang to walk into the bedroom, turned back to Zuo Shaoyang and said, "Zhong'er, you come in, I have something to say." ”

Bai Zhihan helped Zuo Shaoyang to the door and let him go, Zuo Shaoyang entered the house on crutches and closed the door.

Zuo Gui sat down on the round stool next to the round table, poured a cup of tea and handed it to her. Liang drank it all in one go, slowly put down the cup, covered his face and cried.

Zuo Gui turned around and looked at Zuo Shaoyang, sighed, and said: "Zhong'er, I thought about it just now, don't we still have a lot of medicinal materials in our family, I think some of these medicinal materials can also satisfy hunger, the official army didn't say that the medicinal materials should also be collected, it's really not good, we still have medicinal materials to satisfy hunger." It should be able to get through. Otherwise, this surplus grain should be sold to the officers and soldiers......"

Liang raised her teary eyes to look at her husband and nodded happily. It was as if after drowning, Struggling finally swam to the shore.

Zuo Shaoyang was completely speechless, the second elder is like this, this secret cannot be kept. shook his head gloomily and said, "Okay, I'll sell it early tomorrow morning, anyway, the deadline is noon, it's too late." ”

Zuo Gui nodded: "Okay, then you go back and rest, and ask Miss Miao to help take out the grain and sell it to the officers and soldiers tomorrow morning." ”

"Hmmm......"

Zuo Shaoyang turned around and went out gloomily, and Bai Zhihan hurriedly came over to help him back to the concoction room. He said in a low voice: "Young Master, you lie down and rest." You have a wound in your leg and can't climb high, so sleep in my bed. ”

"What about you? You're hurt too! ”

"I'm injured in my hand, it's okay, if I can go up the stairs, I'll sleep in your attic."

"That'll do fine."

"I'll fetch water and wash you."

"No need, I'm in a bad mood today, I don't want to wash, I just want to go to bed early."

"Oh, then I'll help you loosen your clothes."

"Wait a minute." Zuo Shaoyang turned his head to look at her, and said in a low voice: "Since you are determined to die and regard yourself as the Zuo family, I will also treat you as my own family, and there are some things that I don't have to hide from you." - Help me remove the iron pot from the stove. ”

Bai Zhihan agreed, and helped Zuo Shaoyang lift the iron pot aside, Zuo Shaoyang reached out and took down a few bricks at the bottom of the stove, revealing an iron plate below, and then removed the iron plate, revealing a hole below.

Zuo Shaoyang said: "Look at what's below?" ”

Bai Zhihan took the lamp probe and looked down, only to see more than ten bags of grain neatly stacked below, and looked at Zuo Shaoyang with surprise, joy and trepidation.

Zuo Shaoyang said: "The grain below is bought by me to sell my son to make money, these grains can save lives, but now it is likely to be a disaster that ignites the body." You already know the order of the great general, -- each person can only have one bucket of grain at most, and if he exceeds, he will cut off the head of his head if he exceeds one bucket, and if he exceeds three buckets, he will cut off the head of the whole family, including slaves and maids. ”

Bai Zhihan suddenly understood why Zuo Shaoyang insisted on driving himself away before, in fact, it was not that he really hated himself, but that he couldn't bear to lose his surname. I couldn't help but feel warm in my heart and looked at him gratefully.

Zuo Shaoyang's expression was faint: "Okay, if you are now, I mean if, not to drive you away, if you change your mind, I will return the deed of sale to you, you don't need to take risks with our family." ”

Bai Zhihan also said lightly: "Thank you for the kindness of the young master, I am now the slave of the Zuo family, so I naturally live and die with the master, the wife and the young master." If I dare to commit suicide, I am not afraid of being beheaded! ”

Zuo Shaoyang was stunned for a moment, and said with a smile: "Okay." Since you see death as home, when I didn't say it. - Hehe, I just tested whether you really want to be our Zuo family, in fact, just now the lord and wife have already decided to sell all this grain to the official army tomorrow morning. The family is waiting to starve to death! Go to bed! ”

He restored the hole to its original state, and the two of them put the iron pot back on the stove.

Bai Zhihan said: "Lord and wife, they are all kind-hearted people, and God will take care of our family." ”

"Well, my father and mother are kind-hearted, and I'm a ruthless person? But that's right, at the beginning, you scolded me for being vicious, taking advantage of people's danger, having no medical ethics at all, and being hard-hearted. Alas, I hope that I, the wicked man, will not be a drag on you. ”

Bai Zhihan diverted the topic: "I'll give the young master a wide coat." ”

Bai Zhihan untied Zuo Shaoyang's clothes, took off his jacket, and heard a click, and something fell from Zuo Shaoyang's arms on the bed. Bai Zhihan hurriedly picked it up and took a look, only to see that it was a small jade pendant, the jade quality was average, and there was a faint red silk dark pattern in it.

Zuo Shaoyang looked at the jade pendant at a glance, and couldn't help but light up in his eyes: "Give it to me!" ”

Bai Zhihan hurriedly handed him the jade pendant.

Zuo Shaoyang took the jade pendant, held it tightly, and said urgently: "Zhi'er, help me get dressed!" ”

Bai Zhihan didn't ask much, and immediately helped him put on his clothes, helped him stand up, and put on crutches.

Zuo Shaoyang thought for a while and said in a low voice: "You go to Peilan's house for a while, don't say anything, and when I call you, you will come back." ”

Bai Zhihan nodded, didn't ask anything, opened the door of the pharmacy and went out to the grocery store next door, Miao Peilan, and their room.

Zuo Shaoyang lifted the iron pot on the stove with both hands and put it aside, opened the lid of the cellar below, found a rope and a cloth bag, threw the bag down the cellar, and threw the rope down at one end, and then climbed up the stove with his hands and feet, and carefully went down the ladder of the cellar to the bottom. This usually hard-working work made him sweat profusely, but now what he has to do must not be faked, he doesn't want to implicate anyone anymore, and he doesn't want to make any mistakes.

With the help of the light from the concoction room, he scooped most of the bags of rice. Then, with the rope he had just thrown, he tied up the rice bag, climbed up the ladder with difficulty, and laboriously pulled up the large half bag of rice. I didn't put the iron pot back up, and it was left open.

Then, carrying the half bag of rice and crutches, he slowly came to the kitchen. Miao Peilan's family had moved to the grocery store next door, and the kitchen was unoccupied, so he gently opened the back door and carried the rice out to the back alley.

The snow was heavier than before, and the snow on the ground was up to the ankles. The cold wind blew through the alleys, whining, as if there was an invisible ghost, hiding in the night sky and blowing a conch.

Braving the snow, standing up to the biting cold wind, squeaking and stepping on the snow, Zuo Shaoyang carried the large half bag of rice with difficulty, and slowly walked along the alley to Qingfeng Temple.

He listened to the movement all the way, his heart was pounding, the wind and snow were too big, the sentry at the entrance of the alley did not know where to hide from the wind and snow, and the officers and soldiers on patrol did not see a shadow. Zuo Shaoyang had no choice, and moved forward with difficulty. At the end of the alley is Seifuji Temple.

(To be continued)